Birst's BI feature targets data warehouses

Birst, a Sequoia-backed business intelligence (BI) start-up, has rolled out a new feature that targets data warehouses and makes potentially juicy data accessible to business users, Venture Beat reports.

The new product, known as Distributed Business Analytics, combines structured data from data warehouses and any potentially useful departmental data (spreadsheets, lists and files) and stores it in one central place.

Currently, companies have one data warehouse and dozens of departmental databases that remain independent of each other. The product, available in 30 days, promises to change that.

Birst's Distributed Business Analytics includes features to blend data with centraliSed warehouse or cloud master data, create user-configurable data subject menus and business definitions, and self-service BI sandboxing with enterprise data, Information Management writes.

Distribution in the analytic solution can be done in real-time and bypasses duplication through the sandboxing feature, and IT retains governance of enterprise data.

Holger Kisker, principal analyst with Forrester Research, says on the surface, Distributed Business Analytics provides an opportunity for business user flexibility “without compromising data consistency and quality”.

Beyond the single power user, Kisker says the solution provides an extended opportunity for teams to collaborate in a sandbox based on this warehouse data.